3 Blasters Of 2013 Topps – Almost All For Trade

Yes, I too fell victim to the new card smell. In case you haven’t heard, 2013 Topps is out. Last year we opened 5 cases of the stuff. We’re not doing that this time for various reasons, so I ran out to Target to get some blasters.

When I got to Target, they had none on the shelves, but I did see an open packing box on the floor next to the card section. The gravity feeder was still inside, but was picked over pretty badly. Loose packs were scattered everywhere. It was a mess. In the box, I found a full, unopened retail box, which I considered grabbing and 3 remaining blasters. I went with the blasters because I knew they’d have more inserts.

I’m not trying to build the set. I’m only looking for my guys, so the idea is to trade and sell off the rest.

Fair warning: I’m putting all of this stuff up on sportlots at the same time, partly to recoup the money spent and partly to facilitate more sales of older stuff on the site. That means if you comment about wanting a card, there’s a chance it may have sold in the meantime. I’ll try to be as good about updating this as I can, but sales will have to take priority so our feedback stays high.

Take a look below and email me if you want to trade for something you see, or just look to see my thoughts on the set in general.

The Calling Cards look nice, but they could use a little more texture.
The Chase code bothers me. Not because of the contest. No, it’s because they also have this team pennant chase code thing where if the team wins the pennant, you could win a prize. Except those code cards are reallllly rare. 1:12,000 packs rare. Why can’t both contests be equal odds? I think more people would respond to the team based one if given the chance, don’t you?

A Mike Trout red parallel (they come 2 per blaster pack instead of 2 packs of only parallels – equals to about the same amount of cards), and 9 cards instead of 8. Pretty sure those two Chasing the Dream inserts got stuck together, but I’m alright with it.

So many Nationals, not one Bryce Harper. I’ll save you the trouble and tell you he’s missing from all my stacks.

Also, my first Emerald. They look really nice. I agree with Funner Here that they’re even better than the golds from last year. If Topps does it again in 2014 (and I hope they don’t – easy on the parallels, please!), I’m voting for a nice deep blue color.

I don’t know how I feel about the playoff games getting their own card. I mean the concept is fine, but I want a different look to my subsets. These and the league leaders should have a different border or a slight design change.

Those Chasing the Dream inserts are quite nice, too. Love the scoreboard close-up/70s game show feel. In fact, I’m digging all the inserts. I get a Fleer vibe from them, which can almost always be good.

Alright, I don’t like this aspect. Chasing History is both vertical and horizontal. It’s fine with a 330-card set, but in an insert set I want cohesiveness and more standardization.

Patch 1

#RCP-8 – Ryne Sandberg – Rookie Patch – PENDING

Blasters either come with a rookie reprint like this, which is really nice looking (would love to have the Gwynn, hint hint), or a more standard commemorative logo patch. My other two blasters had those, as you’ll see.

Oh yeah, what do I think about the 2013 Topps design? I’m more impressed with the photography than the design. It’s clean and unobtrusive, but when I look at it I see Bowman, not Topps. That’s my biggest problem with it.

I hate to admit it, but I really like that A.J. Pierzynski card. This is coming from a Cubs fan who was very happy to see Michael Barrett punch that jerk-hole in his jerk-hole. I’ve already informed Topps that we’re fighting now because they made me enjoy looking at his card.

I guess now is a good time to reveal that the big trend in my red parallels is that every single one is horizontal. That’s right. All 60 of them are horizontal. Granted I only got about 40 different ones, but still I have no evidence that a vertical red exists.

Last regular pack produces and awesome shot of Kipnis and a pretty good Bauer insert. What’s my last patch, you ask? Well, I’m sure you can see it below already so you don’t have to ask.

Patch 3

#CP-5 – Yu Darvish – Commemorative Patch – PENDING

Darvish and Strasburg patches? I’m rich. Rich I tells ya!

And that’s it. Probably more than you wanted to read. I’m enjoying the 2013 stuff so far. The inserts are quite improved. The design is nice, although it may be better suited to a Bowman line. The white space in the design lends itself to appealing parallels. Good stuff. But it’s not stuff I need. All I need is the cards for my player collections. Since only 1 of the 240 or so cards fits into that, I’m hoping you guys can help me out on that front. Trade away!

I need a red Choo, Hamilton die-cut, the as-yet unclaimed red Trout, Papi Calling Card, & maybe Rizzo & Barney. Wish I had something awesome for that Ryno, but alas. Anyway, I don’t have any 2013 yet, but I’ve been meaning to trade with y’all again for awhile now, so I should have some good stuff already squirreled away for you, especially on the Kerry Wood beat.